ps

just noticed that i didn't relate the title of my last post to the post itself.

that happens a lot.

i start out one way and end up another.

have you ever noticed how a habit that is good or bad is equally hard to start as well as stop? i need to stop some of my bad habits and start some good habits...as well as getting back onto the ol' proverbial wagon and get going at my second half of life. that is the "i've fallen and i can't get up."

i am working on getting back up.

did you notice that i didn't blog for the entire month of september?

i haven't, actually, done much of anything at all, lately. it all started with the heat. yes, i am going to complain, again, about it was too hot to do anything because it was. we are just now having temperatures under 90 degrees and boy does it feel good.

this week i went with my mom to dallas and met up with my sister-in-law mary for a spontaneous really fun time. it all started with an email from mary saying, "i can get tickets for west side story for tomorrow...interested?"

i am not the spontaneous type. i may wait till the last minute to do something, but will have lined up my ducks in a row several months earlier.

so...we said, yes, and since it wasn't starting till 8:00pm, was there a chance to stay over at the hotel, so we wouldn't have to drive back at 11:30pm? mary says, "i'll let you know"."

mom asks if we can stop in highland park to pick up some shoes that were being repaired before checking in and i said, "of course." we call mary to say where we were and she says, "i'll meet you there."

we pick up mom's shoes, we walk around highland park and mary says, "oh! it's open! and oh! there's eric!"

we stop and we have the most wonderful lunch/dinner at a new restaurant called bistro 31. here are the details:

loved the menu.

we started off with a cocktail made with cocchi aperitivo americano.

look at how pretty it is. it was refreshing, not too strong and had a great balance of grapefruit, lemon and orange. as the waiter said, it was to stimulate your appetite (although, i don't need anything to help me get in the mood to eat). so yummy, i am now going to try to make my own at home. first though, i asked my mom if she was going to finish hers, since i had finished mine already.









then came the appetizer...

 and my entree...

trofie with roasted cauliflower and pancetta in the lightest creamiest yummiest sauce i have ever eaten. it was perfect.
the executive chef, eric brandt, is amazing! and, he is really really nice, too.

we dined al fresco because it was in the low 80's! highland park is a perfect place to dine outside. it was a beautiful fall day. i must admit texas does have great springs and falls...i just wish they were longer than a day or two.

then, we saw west side story at the musical hall at state fair park.

the music and dancing was so good. and as mom says, there are no do overs on stage and the performances were so good. i forget how good the music is (i just put it on this very moment...i have more musical music on my ipod than any other kind). and the dancing...stephen sondheim, leonard bernstein and jerome robbins are geniuses.

then, we tucked in at the hotel, woke up and mary had us on our merry way with coffee and the best hotel blueberry muffins in hand.

mom says, quoting bert, "oh, it's a jolly holiday with mary. when the day is gray and ordinary, mary makes the sunshine bright."

yes, indeed...thank you, mary, so very much for making an ordinary tuesday into a holiday.

help...i have fallen and i can't get up

i just got through listening to npr's special about steve jobs. i had to sit in my driveway in my car to listen to the rest of the excerpts from his stanford commencement address. he is so smart! in retrospect, i think that he knew, somehow, that he would not live a very long life. some very much younger people will think that 56 is old, but from someone like me, who will be turning 55, it is not very old at all...not even close. he did so much in his short life and he did it well. as he said in his speech, one can only connect the dots in hindsight. one can see that what one did in the past will be a component for success in the future. with dropping out of college, getting fired from apple and being diagnosed with prostatic cancer, he realized that these things were needed to achieve what he did. when things go wrong in my life, i will look to his example.

when i drove up my driveway, i noticed that the pear tree across the street was in bloom. i looked around the neighborhood at the other pear trees, but this is the only one. i promise you that i took this photo yesterday and not last spring. you can tell by looking at the neighbor's yard. they don't have a sprinkler system and water by hand, but i don't think they watered the yard very much this summer. you can see bare spots of dirt where there is usually grass and the cypress looks a lot like ours with portions of it dying. the drought, even if one has a sprinkler system, took a toll on the trees. we watered extensively because we had planted 12 (!) new trees in the yard in early spring not knowing that we were going to have the hottest and driest summer on record.

anyhoo, the blooming pear tree across the street...do you think, like steve jobs, it knows that it is dying and is giving us one more look at what it can do?

rest in peace, mr jobs, you made great use of your time here and i thank you.

eye candy

i know i am not supposed to post any eye candy. supposedly a married woman shouldn't do that (yes...i was born in the 1800's...juuuuuuuust kidding). but, i am making an exception. there are very few actors that i would break my promise not to post about. lots of blogs will post about paul newman.

who wouldn't? he is THE most handsome man ever born...ever.

(okay, aside from my husband and my son, who are the most handsome men, ever - that's just in case either of them ever read this)

but, this post is not about him. i have fallen in love with another man.

gary cooper

he is my jimmy stewart. i have seen 'sergeant york', 'meet john doe' and i cried and cried while watching gary cooper play lou gehrig in 'the pride of the yankees'. his speech at the end made me burst into tears. also when he hugged his mother and asked her to his best gal.

i, now, am setting my queue to watch a few more films with of my hero.

has he ever played a villain?

how can he with those dimples?

i am a sucker for dimples. that's one of husband scott's best traits...his dimples and his smile. daughter michelle and son jason were lucky enough to inherit both those traits from him.

if this photo isn't enough to convince you, watch his appearance on 'what's my line'. he was 58 years old at the time and i believe the whole panal melted when they took off their blind folds.

do you ever...

watch a movie over and over again and never get tired of it? i have a few that i can do that. i have watched 'drive me crazy' a gazillion times and it isn't even a great movie. i also have another that is a really really great movie that i just watched twice this weekend. it is funny, heart wrenching and true. 

muriel's wedding

the first time i saw it i didn't know who toni collette was. she is such a good actor. i loved her character. i am not much of an abba fan, but i love all the songs in this movie. in fact, i have never watched 'mama mia' because i want the abba songs to only relate to 'muriel's wedding'. 

this time around, i took note of something that muriel says in the movie that resonated with me more than ever. she is talking to rachel griffiths' character, rachel, who has asked muriel how she can stand taking care of her (rachel)...

and she says, "i'd just stay in my room for hours and listen to abba songs. sometimes, i would stay in there all day. since i've met you and moved to sydney, i haven't listened to one abba song...because now my life is as good as an abba song. it's as good as dancing queen."

that's what i want in my life. i want it to be as good as dancing queen, don't you?

i love tuesdays

have you ever notice that how one little event can change the whole emotion of the day?

i was checking my emails and there was an email from a friend that i have not seen in 17 - 18 years. i was really close to them and their younger son was really close to mine. we were living in syria at the time when we met. it was sad to leave and say good bye because i knew that the chance of us ever seeing them was really really really remote. they are from australia and after their stint in syria, they moved to hong kong and then back to oz. we moved from syria back to the states and that is where we've been since...albeit we went from syria to oklahoma to california and now in texas (not near as exotic as syria to hong kong and now in australia, is it?)

anyhoo, the email was to say that after spending the christmas and new year holiday up north, they were flying into dallas and driving down to austin, fredericksburg and san antonio!!!!!!

omg! omg! omg! must call husband scott...rats...he's tied up in meetings. who can i call! who? can't contain myself...aaaaaaaaaaagh!

so i call sister laura and we have a really nice talk. i am now on cloud nine...so very happy.

then, husband scott came home. i tell them the great news! he was excited...i guess. then, he proceeds to tell me my skirt is too short...really?!
i shouldn't wear short skirts at my age...

have you ever noticed how one little event can change the whole emotion of the day?

btw, it is not a short skirt...it goes to just above the knees. it was the way i was sitting that hiked it up AND i am at home, relaxing...in a place where i can wear my pj's for crying out loud.

he later apologized, but i am not accepting any apologies around here unless this is attached to it:

thank you very much                     

i hate mondays

sorry for no posts for the whole week...did you miss me? i am sure you did (not).

i had a good reason for not posting. i was moving daughter michelle from here to utah with me driving a truck, by. my. self. that's right, i drove 20 hours in 3 days in a 16ft rental truck with daughter michelle's possessions in my, well, possession. it was a first for me. more on that for a later post...i promise.

i got back last night and now i am tired. i've got a whole bunch of laundry to do tomorrow...i didn't feel like  doing it today. husband scott went out and bought new underwear so he would not have to do laundry while i was gone. he told me that he thought about calling me and asking me how to use the washing machine, but changed his mind and went shopping instead.

soooooo...as i said i got back last night. i had never been to utah until last week. i enjoyed being with michelle for the whole week, driving, unpacking, organizing, exploring the place and just sitting around watching last season's mad men. (i cannot believe i have to wait until 2012 to see more...seriously.) i guess i am glad to be home. i already miss my daughter. empty nesting sucks!

so i went from this:

so much fun!

to the saddest photo in the world:

so why is this so sad?

it's a photo of me waiting in the las vegas airport...for 2 hours...leaving michelle in utah...while drinking a $3.50 iced tea (really? $3.50 tea).

then being home, without children, on a monday...i hate mondays.

fate, coincidence or 6 degrees of separation?

a while back, i was talking to my mom about son-in-law's new job and she asked where he and daughter michelle were going to live. i told her cedar city, utah. and then i said, "she is so excited because there is a shakespearean festival, there!"

i was kidding.

in our family here in fort worth, mom and i are the only ones to go to the trinity shakespeare festival every summer...or should i say all three of them since it has just started up again...you should go...it's good.

and, mom said, "i wonder if it's the big one in utah that is well-known? the reason i'm asking is because laura's friend, debbie's, son is part of the cast." i googled it and there was my sister's friend's son...in the cast! not only that, debbie was going to be over for dinner at sister laura's house THAT NIGHT!

weird, right?

what are the chances that:  son-in-law dru gets a new job > moves with daughter michelle to cedar city, utah > where there is a shakespeare festival > with a cast member > whose mom > is a friend of my sister's > and is a dinner guest > that night?!! (i wonder if i can tie kevin bacon in there...somehow...hmmmmm.)

now remember, i live in texas, my sister & her friend live in new jersey, and my daughter in utah...not really all in the same community.

so...is it just a big coincidence or is it fate or just 6 degrees of separation?

it is a small world after all, indeed.

btw, michelle and i are driving the truck o' stuff (me) and her car (she) all by ourselves. wish us luck!

i hate mondays

what to do when it's 110 plus degrees outside all. the. time...

if you are as lucky as i am, you have friends like these

who invite you to spend the weekend with them and their wonderful boat, where you fly on the water to find a nice cool spot to sit on a water noodle and cool off in the lake. and, husband scott attempts to water ski

and your friends know that you like to take photos of birds, spots one for you, and very very patiently waits for you to find it on the screen (in the bright sun with your sunglasses...why oh why is there no view finder?) of your point and shoot, while your husband is saying, "give it to me" and husband takes great photo for you.

and they don't complain when you want to walk blocks to your favorite store, red, in 120 degree heat, to just look around and wish you could buy everything in the store, but end up snapping a photo of what you really like and not buy anything.

and you go back to their condo and have peanut butter pie.

so much fun!

but then comes monday.

where you wake up to a forecast of 109 degree high, a 4lb gain (curse you, you extra delicious pie), and get to go to work, which happens to be a financial advisor institution where the dow drops 600 plus points (curse you, you debt ceiling and drop down from triple a rating).

husband scott is no longer looking like this:

curse you, you triple digits

curse you, you economice crisis

and curse you, monday, most of all (sigh)













wish i was back in the weekend fun.

how hot is it?

too hot

it is so hot that when i drove past these guys, i had to turn around, park and take a picture.

when i drove by the cardboard piece was just laying on his head. here, he is readjusting it. why does the city choose to tear up the street in august and have these poor guys working out in the heat?

of course, this year, it wouldn't have mattered since june was already 100 plus degrees, but normally it isn't.

i was in a parking lot across the street when i took this photo...and was VERY discreet...or so i thought

i'm glad to see he has a sense of humor. mine has disappeared and won't be back until it hits below 90 degrees.

friday friday good ol' friday

i love fridays!

i used to not so much when i was a stay at home mom. back then, i loved mondays. it's true. i am sure there are some people out there that will agree with me. mondays were when husband scott went back to work and the children back to school and i had the house to myself...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

but now, i love fridays. i get to sleep in on saturday mornings.

tonight, however, was extra special. husband scott and i are making a bad habit of going to dallas for dinner and a movie on fridays. tonight we met up with brother john and mary for dinner at roti grill. it's simple, but really good indian food. we like the naan so much that it was ordered 3 times.

after dinner, we went to the angelika. we have been going there a lot since the movies playing there don't make it to fort worth. i don't know why. i do hope that the citizen theatre gets finished soon because supposedly they will be showing movies like the magnolia, angelika, inwood & texas theatre show. the first line on their website reads - "Your days of driving all the way to Dallas to see good movies are numbered, friends."


so, we went to the angelika and this is what i saw

a celebrity being interviewed. of course, i, little bit, got all excited, and had to take a photo. daughter michelle says to me that i don't even know who he is. and i said, i did that he is the director of the movie beats rhymes something or another and he was one of phoebe's boyfriends on friends...the one that shoots the bird. and she says no he isn't, so i googled it and guess who won? 


that's right...me. of course it still is not enough to be able to compete in pioneer woman's movie quiz, but whatevs.


we didn't see that movie (sorry one of phoebe's boyfriends). we saw life, above all, which was kinda' slow but i was entranced by the beauty of the movie. it was just so beautifully shot.


speaking of beauties...

no, not husband scott... the other one in front.

this one. 
daughter michelle is with us for a while.




i am so very very very happy.














seriously...isn't she beautiful?